Thanks for responding,
I never heard Denon 301 MKII,
Please respond if anyone have experience denon 301 compared to denon 103?
I never heard Denon 301 MKII,
Please respond if anyone have experience denon 301 compared to denon 103?
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For any Low Compliance cartridges such your Denon 103 you need superheavy tonearms like Fidelity-Research FR-64s (30g effective mass) or related high mass tonearm. You Carbon is a total mismatch for this cartridge. Why do you need Denon, because of the price ? There are many amazing cartridges for your tonearm (in $300-400 range) and most of them are MM (much better than your modern Ortofon). |
Have a look here: https://www.sound-smith.com/cartridge-compliancearm-mass-chart Thing is, it’s a cheap table and it’s not going to have the bearing tolerances built in where you can maximize value from a better cartridge. The Blue you have now is fine. You could look at some of Chakster’s classic MM recommendations. |
@haribabu Well, definitely MM or MI for your turntable, but the price range even for those type of caridges is pretty wide. Normally depends on the cantilever and stylus type. It can be aluminum cantilever (cheap) with the best diamond (expensive), or it can be an exotic cantilevers (very expensive) and the best diamonds. So it would be nice to know your budget first. But anything good starts from $300 normally and to infinity. In my opinion vintage MM/MI are better. |
@noromance very interesting information you shared. Thanks @chakster Umm. My budget is anything between 200$ to 350$. Please suggest any MM... Thanks |
@chakster In this price range Victor X-1IIe is great. Titanium Pipe Cantilever and Nude Elliptical diamond. Normally people asking for higher price for used samples on ebay, it depends on condition, but honestly it’s a nice high resolution cartridge, only one step behind our favorite X-1II, same generator. It’s important to look for original victor stylus, not for Jico stylus (which is also available for this cartridge). The goal of the original is exotic Titatium Pipe cantilever, great option for relatively low price (imo) ! I just replaced my used sample with NOS and i’m happy to have it in collection (with aditional spare stylus in the separate box). My ususl suspects under $350 is Stanton 881s mkII and Pickering XSV-3000 with Stereohedron styli. Those two are also very nice (but only with genuine styli). What else, hmm ... Definitely the Audio-Technica AT-ML150 OCC with Beryllium cantilever and MicroLine tip, but i think it’s more expensive than suggested budget. Grace F-9L with clear Luminal Trace stylus is also slightly more expensive nowadays. There is also F-9E (green Elliptical), F-9F (blue, Shibata) and F-9U (grey, LineContact) P.S. I think you can’t go wrong with any of them under $500 all pictures taken by me, hope it will help |